Christmas Cake with a Surprise Inside

Merry Christmas! We’re only a couple of weeks away from the big day, and I’m sure you’ll need some sort of dessert to help celebrate. This vertical cake roll will impress the jolly man in the red suit, and all your other guests!

This cake roll is something a little different than the regular type of roll you might be used to. Instead of traditionally rolling up the cake by the width, this cake is rolled up length ways in small strips to create a large roll. It gets a little messy when you roll this cake up but it’s kinda fun to get dirty sometimes, right? It’s fun to roll it up!

Cake Procedure: 1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray two jelly roll pans with non-stick spray and line with wax paper. Spray the paper as well. 2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Mix and set aside. 3. In a stand mixer, whip the eggs, sugar and lemon juice until thick. Heat the milk and slowly add it to the egg mixture and whip until very thick. 4. Gently fold a third of the flour mixture into the egg mixture, until combined. Repeat flour additions, and continue to fold until there are no flour chunks remaining. 5. Divide batter between the two jelly roll pans, and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. 6. Allow cakes to cool once they are baked.

Assembly Procedure: 1. Prepare whipping cream and colour it red. 2. Cut cooled green cake slabs into 3 ¼” strips. Slicing both of the green cakes will give you six strips. You will need four of them. 3. Cover each of the four cake strips with red whipping cream. 4. To start to roll the cake, start at the end of one and tightly roll it up towards the opposite end. Line up the end of the rolled portion with the start of the next strip and continuing rolling. Repeat with the third and forth strip as well. 5. When the cake roll is completed, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer to solidify. 6. Place the 8” round cake on a cake board and attach it to the board with a swipe of buttercream. Cut the round cake in half, so you have two thin round cake halves. Cover the bottom round cake with buttercream. 7. Place the cake roll on top of the bottom round cake. Cover the top of the cake roll with buttercream and attach the second round cake to the top. Cover the rest of the cake with buttercream. 8. Using a piping bag fitted with a #104 tip, stripe the bag with green gel paste by brushing a line of gel paste from the bottom of the bag (lined up with the narrow part of the tip), to the middle, and fill with buttercream. Repeat with the red gel paste. 9. Apply ribbons of buttercream up the sides of the cake by placing the tip of the piping bag at the bottom of the cake, and zig zagging up the side of the cake about an inch in width. Alternate between red and green stripes. 10. To finish the cake off, place gum drops and peppermints at the top of the ribbons. 11. Keep cake in fridge until ready to serve. It is best used within 2-3 days.